ABBOTTABAD, Jan 25: The World Vision Pakistan on Thursday formally launched the mother-child healthcare project in the remote mountainous Dalbandi village in the Sum union council of the quake-hit Mansehra district.

The project funded by the US Howard Buffet Foundation is being run in collaboration with a local NGO Basic Education for Afghan Refugees (BEFAR).

It will benefit 2,000 women directly and over 6,000 women indirectly in 95 villages of seven union councils in Mansehra tehsil.

World Vision Pakistan program director Chance Briggs and two women from the World Vision USA, Rachel Brumbauger and Sonia Harter were present on the occasion.

BEFARe has selected women instructors from the community who will be trained for imparting training to the community women on various aspects of maternity and prenatal and postnatal care.

“There will be a hundred MCH training courses for a period of four-and-a-half months that will include audio-visual material for uneducated women and at the end of course, women will be provided with maternity related hygiene kits,” Ms Makiba Yamano, an expert, told participants.

The MCH training programme has been started in the Sum union council, Itchrian, Bherkund and Jallu in the first phase and it will be started in the snow-bound Jabouri, Sacha Kalan and Jabbar-Devli union councils of Siran valley in the second phase.

“We do not have any healthcare facilities; there is no lady doctor or lady health worker available, and in case of a pregnancy-related complications we have to walk for three hours to Shinkiyari hospital,” said Ms Yamano, quoting a woman who participated in the training.